Small business owners and organizations fight for survival is becoming a part of everyday conversations, headline news, journey topics, and radio talk. Businesses around the world are trying to avoid the graveyard for businesses. This is a place where unsuccessful businesses rest after consumers closes their wallets and corporate revenue plunge beyond repair. The fight for survival is real and the challenges faced have the potential to bring a finish to a once good ideal. Strategic planning is a necessary tool for an organization or small business to know where the company is headed and what means the plan will get the organization there. This plan may consist of looking at the organization’s strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). This paper will benchmark two well know companies while using a SWOT analysis to compare and contrast leadership and change management. “SWOT analysis is the foundation for building a strategic plan. SWOT analysis identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threads an organization is facing. The advantage of completing a SWOT analysis is the gathered information that may be used to empower the organization through building on the strengths, identifying and overcoming weaknesses, using opportunities for advancement, and the ability to properly manage and minimize external threats” (McNamara, 2011). The two companies of choice is Southwest Airlines and

Company History and SWOT Analysis Southwest Airlines“In 1966 a group of Texas investors founded a company called Air Southwest Co. later becoming incorporated as Southwest Airline Co. in 1967. Southwest has become the largest domestic airline in the United States by the amount of passengers carried. Southwest Airlines has been in business for over 43 years as a successful airline,...